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The Pythons
Graham Chapman
Main article: Graham Chapman
Born in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, England on 8 January 1941, Chapman was originally a medical student, but changed to theatre when he joined Footlights at Cambridge (he did in fact complete his medical training and was legally entitled to practise as a doctor). Chapman is best remembered for taking the lead roles in The Holy Grail, as King Arthur, and Life of Brian, as Brian Cohen.
These were largely straight roles, but in the Flying Circus, he had tended to specialise in characters closer to his own personality: outwardly calm, authoritative figures barely concealing a manic unpredictability. In many ways, Chapman was the epitome of public-school respectability, a tall, craggy pipe-smoker who enjoyed mountaineering and playing rugby. At the same time, he was proudly gay, highly eccentric (Douglas Adams remembered seeing Chapman in his local pub, casually whacking his penis against the bar to attract the attention of the bar staff) and, by the start of the 1970s, an alcoholic who was beginning to cause problems for the other Pythons with his excessive drinking.
Chapman had been infuriating the others by performing drunk on stage, missing cues and forgetting lines (a habit that had begun during the later television shows), and had particular trouble filming Holy Grail in Scotland, where he got a case of delirium tremens, often called DTs. At the height of his alcoholism, he was reportedly consuming two quarts of gin every day.[11] On accepting his definitive role of Brian, he finally made the decision to stop drinking, and was sober by the time filming began – his performance in the film is arguably the finest of his career.
Besides starring in Monty Python features, Chapman appeared in films such as The Odd Job (which he also produced) and Yellowbeard (which he directed), also making several appearances on Saturday Night Live. He died of spinal and throat cancer on 4 October 1989. He is now lovingly referred to by the surviving Pythons as "the dead one." At Chapman's memorial service, Cleese delivered the irreverent speech he felt his co-writer would have wanted: having been the first person to say “shit” on British television, Cleese announced, Chapman would never have forgiven him had he missed the opportunity to become “the first person ever at a British memorial service to say 'fuck'.” Furthermore, Cleese recited all the synonyms for being deceased, from the infamous Dead Parrot Sketch. Cleese also remarked in an interview with Michael Parkinson that, in a heartfelt reference to Chapman's tendency towards lateness, Palin remarked at the funeral "Graham Chapman is with us today...or at least he will be in twenty-five minutes". Chapman was survived by partner of 24 years, David Sherlock and adopted son, John Tomiczek, who later married an American girl and died in 1992 of heart trouble.
John Cleese
Main article: John Cleese
Cleese performing his silly walkBorn on 27 October 1939 in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, England, Cleese’s family surname had originally been Cheese. His father, however, had it changed to Cleese when he joined the army during World War I. Cleese attended Clifton College, Bristol where he developed a taste for performing by appearing in house plays, then moved on to Cambridge, where he met his future Python writing partner, Graham Chapman.
Along with Gilliam's animations, Cleese's work with Chapman provided Python with its darkest and angriest moments, and many of his characters display the seething suppressed rage that later characterised his portrayal of Basil Fawlty. Many critics naturally make a connection with Cleese's own self-confessed neuroses (he has spoken openly about receiving psychoanalysis).
Unlike Palin and Jones, Cleese and Chapman actually wrote together, in the same room; Cleese claims that their writing partnership involved him sitting with pen and paper, doing most of the work, while Chapman sa